American novelist

The Gold Bug Variations

The Gold Bug Variations is a double love story of two young couples separated by a distance of twenty-five years. Stuart Ressler, a brilliant young molecular biologist, sets out in 1957 to crack the genetic code. His efforts are sidetracked by other, more intractable codes – social, moral, musical, spiritual – and he falls in love with a member of his research team. Years later, another young man and woman team up to investigate a different scientific mystery – why did the eminently promising Ressler suddenly disappear from the world of science? Strand by strand, these two love stories twist about each other in a double helix of desire.

A national bestseller, this magnificent story probes the meaning of love, science, music, and art.

Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award, 1991Time Magazine Book of the Year, 1991Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 1991Vrij Nederland Best Books of 1991New York Times Notable Book, 1991De Morgen Best Book of 1991 (named in 1999, in a compilation of the best books each year over the last half century)

“Magnificent….Powers’s characters are fascinating, brilliant, eccentric people…but beyond that is the ability to induce the reader to see the world differently, revealed in a new light.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“The Gold Bug Variations is the most important and intellectually challenging American novel published this year.”—Philadelphia Inquirer